Help please: how to replace a prop shaft

B

bassarama

Junior Member
Hey guys

Got to agressive last year chasing Bass around rocky areas and next thing I had a messed up prop

Don't have a book to use as reference and can't find a repair video on line for this application.

Here's a couple of pics I just took.

Thanks in advance for any help
 
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i don't know if there are any u-tube videos, but its not easy to explain with out a diagram or manual(get a factory manual). You can do it without any special shimming tools if all you are going to do is replace the prop shaft. You need to get the rear bearing carrier out before you do anything else(carrier puller, and lots of heat), if you can't get it out, you'll have to go with another plan. Take a good look at the prop shaft carrier bearings while your at it, the roller bearing in the back end usually needs to replaced after a bent prop shaft. Check the price on the prop shaft, carrier bearing, seal kit, and water pump kit, then look at the SEI lower units. You may want to go that route. If you have this on a high speed boat, i would recommend staying with the factory lower unit, but on something like a V20, you'll be fine with aftermarket. Good luck, if you have any more questions, feel free to post them up.
 
another thing to consider is that if you swap to an aluminum prop, you won't bend another prop shaft or otherwise tear up the lower unit from a prop strike tho you can bust up the prop easier.
 
Thanks for helping out guys, I really appreciate it.

After this one, I'll have an alum. prop and will keep the SS as a spare to get me in...in case history repeats itself! :head:



Thanks again.

Joe
 
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Differing opinion

I have to disagree with smokeonthewater. In a coastal application where I live an aluminum prop is a sign of a new guy. They tear up on anything, and if you hit a sandbar running a pass they can leave you without power up sh*t creek in seconds. I worked out there & it happens often.

That's why they have rubber hubs, on impact they spin loose & provide the needed give, & then it's change the prop or lose MOST of your power, but you can still keep steerage & out of trouble.

He is correct, of course, that a stainless prop is not the weak link in the drive chain like a aluminum one, the shaft, the bearings all take more stress from that weight a hard impact.

Two theory's I guess, but I'm not about to install the weak point on my drive system, I run a cupped 19 pitch Michigan wheel & have an old stainless Mercury wheel in the boat as a backup, I've had on 3 boats over 20 years, it's been trued & rehubbed once.
 
The only point I disagree on is where you said we disagreed.... there are definitely conditions where tearing up the drive is far less scary than being without power and you have to choose for your own situation.... Personally I boat in the river and have friends who bust props and drives fairly often... I haven't even nicked one in several years but I stay away from the eddies that attract logs and I am not at all bashful about using the trim switches in the shallows... The last one I busted it took about half of one blade and maybe a quarter of the other two and I lost I don't have to deal with treacherous inlets and I have no need for a stainless prop BUT that is just in the conditions that I operate in.
 
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